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Interesting COMT thread

Messages
66
It's true, and it's particularly true for the prefrontal cortex since the dopamine transporter is mainly in regions of the middle of the brain but not the frontal cortex, meaning that catecholamine O methyltransferase plays a larger role in the frontal cortex: http://www.anthrogenica.com/showthread.php?8-COMT-variation-and-intelligence-(rs4680)

The difference between Val/val and Met/met alleles will result in a 3-4 fold difference in dopamine catabolism. I myself am Met/met, and since joining this forum have been highly cautious of using any methylation agents. I have had severe panic attacks in reaction to caffeine which I have avoided ever since. There are many many many genetic factors that can lead to increased dopamine here or there (various regions of the brain, as this stuff isn't as 2 dimensional as forums sometimes make it seem, or wish it to be) but the rs4680 I believe is a particularly powerful SNP in its ability to alter dopamine concentrations. Here is a pubmed article discussing the 3-4 fold difference between val/met homozygotes for rs4680 in the summary (just for evidence). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16395295